Is Bitcoin Mining Making A Comeback?

The interest in bitcoin mining is about as volatile as bitcoin itself; it changes with the value of the digital currency.

Now, new reports indicate that bitcoin mining popularity may be on the rise since bitcoin is getting more attention — and, of course, increasing in value. When bitcoin was at its peak in 2013 (over $1,100), there were more resources to invest in the practice (adding transactions to bitcoin’s public ledger, AKA the blockchain).

What happened in 2013 resulted in a lot of new bitcoins being generated and the value of the digital currency skyrocketing from basically nothing to making some successful miners very wealthy. And then bitcoin hit a slump, diving in 2015 to a low of $183, which put a lot of individual miners out of the industry.

With bitcoin having been in the mid-$400s recently, there’s some signs that bitcoin mining popularity is on the rise.

“When the price goes up, there’s more confidence in mining, and [mining equipment makers] go and design the next-generation chips,” Bobby Lee, CEO of BTCC, a bitcoin exchange, told Bloomberg. “For people who already bought equipment, their ROI will increase.”

As the article pointed out, BTCC runs the second-largest bitcoin mining pool in the world.

But, of course, the practice of bitcoin mining has been known for being quite risky. With more people investing in the computing power needed for the bitcoin mining hardware, there’s the possibility to generate better output. But then, when the bitcoin ecosystem takes a hit, so does the mining business.

But, of course, bitcoin has proven its price volatility time and time again. And the process of keeping up with bitcoin mining practices are growing increasingly sophisticated, which means getting increasingly expensive. But for the already active bitcoin mining community, the newfound demand in bitcoin and the digital currency market could mean good things for those mining companies.

How do we know?

“Everyone in our pool is making money, because people who aren’t making money would not have their machines turned on,” Lee said in the interview.